Planet Master

176- Landing on Rodentia (1)

“All hostile factors neutralized.” The officer who handled the sensors of the enemy spaceships which were hostile, announced the latest result.The captain of the spaceship then shared the result with the entire Federation Fleets, the Gling, and the Undead.

“The result is good. Their resistance is fierce, but their younger generation is forced to be prisoners of us. Is this fine?” Zhask communicated through the channel.

“Well, they are children psychologically and can be considered minors. You know that the Federation treated them as civilians. This is why we did this, to prove to the enemy that we truly mean what we uphold.” The captain replied.

“I see. You have a principle that you follow. I am glad that you have such a thing. I will surely learn about it in depth.” Zhask nodded.

“The next stop after penetrating the geostationary orbit of Rodentia is to locate the space-based weapon and then land on the Rodentia planet.” The captain said slowly but surely.

“All spaceships capable of orbital bombardment are to be ready in position.” An announcement was made in the communication channel.

“Go!”

“The Undead will provide your units with orbital bombardment attack.”

-

The Federation Fleets were starting to surround the Rodentia planet. The resistance was growing weaker, and their fleets were annihilated. Of course, they managed to make three spaceships of the Federation totally destroyed.

If not for the developed shield as well as the refined materials for the hull of the spaceships, the Federation Fleets would have suffered additional sacrifices.

Even with losing the capability of space fighting, the Yul Municipality still did not surrender showing that they would resist until they were in the coffin with its last nail hammered down.

The Hinon Federation had anticipated this scenario so they just moved to the endgame phase.

While this was happening, there were matters to be accomplished first.

The children from various races of Yul Municipality which participated in the Star Battle were turned out to have their memories implanted for the purpose of war.

“So you are saying that their memories are altered?” Tatsumi communicated with Charlene and Ivana and based on their preliminary result, that was obvious.

“Yes. Our device detected the asymmetry with their brain waves in the prefrontal cortex so I investigated a bit and found the likely reason.” Charlene’s red eyes stared straight at Tatsumi.

“Damn them!” Tatsumi clenched his hand in frustration. He could not believe that the enemy could go that far but he knew that he had underestimated the ruthlessness of the enemy.

“Accelerated Growth is one thing and now implanted memory too.” Ame murmured with a serious look.

“You informed me that the children are under our custody in the rear. How’s their condition?” Charlene asked.

“Oh, right. They have started to get rehabilitated. The plan is for them to go to Solont planet to get it while the preliminary process is done on the spaceship.” Ame said with a nod.

“The problem of implanting memories is that the experience can be jarring to you. But I think the technology for that in Yul Municipality’s hands is quite mature, reducing the incongruence. Should we look for this technology, though?” Tatsumi asked.

“Hmm, I think we should still look for it. Although the technology they have developed is used for harm, we can change it and make things better with it.” Charlene said.

Technology was just a means, not an end. She believed that this would be able to at least mend the broken mind and heart of some people. Her first thought was the positive development of this technology.

Of course, it could be used like what she had heard. Implanting memories about an experienced soldier to someone inexperienced.

‘But doing that will cause some incongruency, especially to the physical body. No wonder they relied on the Accelerated Growth Serum, which will alleviate it to some extent.’ Charlene in the Cerulean Planet tapped her desk with her index finger, considering many possibilities with this technology.

“I see. Let’s do it then. Make the search for the memory implanting and Accelerated Growth Serum a priority in searching.” Tatsumi decided on the matter.

Then he used the interplanar channel for communication with the leader of the fleets about this information, sharing it and its importance to the Federation.

“I see. Our Marines who will land on Rodentia can start searching for the information regarding the two. We, on the other hand, will be searching for the source of the technology, aiding you all in finding them.” The captain of the Spacecraft Carrier Adrian nodded and agreed, even improvising based on the recent plan.

“Disciple, is what you are saying true? If so, then let’s find which hidden labs have those two.” Long Wu replied after destroying the space-based weapon.

“Okay, thanks, everyone. Let’s go and do this!”

And with that, the hunt began.

Everything else went as planned. But first, they tracked the source of the two technologies first before commencing with orbital bombardment.

This was done to expose the hidden laboratories or facilities that contained them. While this was done, the Marines were sent down to nearby areas to look for the technology's data, whether it was the scientists, the recorded data, or the papers, they could take it.

Several drop pods were coming and producing heat due to friction with the atmosphere before landing and causing a ruckus, creating craters on their landing site.

“Spaceship to Landing Marines, listen up. We will execute orbital bombardment near your location. After that, you all need to go to the nearest location of bombardment to subdue and capture important people or data. Then secure them properly before sending them back to our side. Spaceship out.”

A global announcement was made, and the Landing Marines were informed exactly what they should do. The objectives were also clear, so they knew what to do.

“Looks like we need to search, capture, and secure.” At one of the landing sites, a Marine wearing an exoframe was grabbing his gun while reminding the rest of their mission objective.

“Yeah, look at the sky. We need to locate the nearest bombardment site since it means that the location of the hidden facilities is there.” Another picked up a chainsaw for a melee weapon while grabbing a gun for another.

Then the Landing Marines around Rodentia saw a blinding light coming from the heaven, beyond the cloud and horizon.

Slowly but surely, the orbital bombardment arrived. All they had to do was follow the direction of the bombardment.

That was what they did. They followed the bombardment location and had to walk despite the shaking ground, making things slightly difficult.

They came near and nearer to the site and had to wait until the bombardment stopped.

“That’s quite a firepower.”

“Wuhuu…I can see the entrance!”

“Yay, we finally see the entrance of the facility. After this, storm in.”

“Be careful, everyone, looks like we are not welcome.”

Chatter through the communication channel reverberated and everyone on the landing mission knew that they had to acquire the technologies of their enemy.

As the chatter said, something was coming out of the hidden facility. It was actually robots.

This time, the robots were for security purposes so they only had one command: defend their position at all costs.

“Contact with robots!”

“Aim for the head. That’s where their processing unit is located.”

“Or if possible, bring their parts back. Of course, after the main mission is accomplished.”

“Roger.”

The Landing Marines were equipped with strong weapons for urban warfare so infiltrating the hidden facilities was no problem. Even if the defense force were robots, it would not change the result.

One marine used the chainsaw to behead the robot, severing its head from its body, the severed part let out an electric current that searched to connect to anything.

Then the alarm from the hidden facilities blared. The Landing Marines knew that time was short so they quickly eliminate the most annoying robot while keep moving toward the deeper part of the facility.

The outer part was forced open by the orbital bombardment but the inner part had to be opened manually.

“We have expected this. Manual opening, execute now!”

Then the Marines had to manually open the gate to the inner part of the hidden facility. It took some time but ultimately, they managed to get inside.

But when they got inside…

“Whoa, what the heck happened here?”

“Looks like chaos has been happening here.”

“Same here. They were caught by surprise, it seems.”

“Quick, get all the good stuff!”

“Go!Go!Go!”

The Landing Marines realized the severity of the matter and the importance of timing. They quickly went to any room and opened the door forcefully. They did not want to miss something, even if it was a flash disk or any data storage and people.

They were like locust, swarming and getting everything on the facility. Soon, they captured some scientists who had been working there but was caught by the hidden facility’s lockdown.

Fortunately, the electricity was still working but now that the Marines were in, they were looking for any information about any kind of data. But of course, the ultimate prize of finding the Memory Implant and Accelerated Growth Serum technology was discovered in parts.

“Spaceship, we have found the data on the technology mentioned. But it is fragmented.”

“So not only you, me too. How about the spaceship tries to combine the data? Is this feasible?”

The chatter in the global communication channel was heard by the officers and the captains on the spaceships.

“What did they say? Fragmented?” Tatsumi put his hand on his chin.

“It makes sense. To not easily fall into our hands, the technology data was fragmented into several parts for security purposes. Too bad that we raided every single one of their hidden facilities and managed to collect all the fragments. Gather them all!” Ame ordered, which the captain obeyed and quickly relayed to the rest of the Marines and the other spaceships.

“You all need to upload the data. Then secure the scientists in a safe place you know of.” The captain gave the order.

“Yes, sir!”

And with that, the Marines were retreating from the hidden facilities to the wilderness area where they could hide and do a hit and run in case the planet’s military forces were trying to pin them down.

But then someone came to the land of Rodentia.

“This facility should be connected to the space-based weapon I previously destroyed.” Long Wu had landed on one of the continents in Rodentia.

The environment was cold as snow piled up on this land while the star above only provided meager warmth. But Long Wu was unaffected since his transcendent energy formed a protective barrier and his refined body could withstand some degree of cold.

In front of him was a gate that had been recently destroyed by the orbital bombardment, revealing what lay beyond the gate. From what Long Wu had observed so far, this facility was built underground but was connected to the hollow inside the mountain in front of him.

“Also, there is some fight happening.” Long Wu traced the remnants left from the fight. There was a magazine dropped, some littered empty bullet shells as well as the smell of the Ether from the Marines and the Rodent permeating this place.

“Looks like the security here is the highest. That space cage…is created by this facility, and therefore, there is a high chance for us to reverse-engineer it. But I thought that the Accelerated Growth Serum and the Memory Implants were more important? I think I need to investigate this.” Long Wu was determined to find out what was actually going on.

When he stepped into the facility beyond the gate, he felt there was nothing of note. But there were remnants of robots being scattered around the outer part of the facility being destroyed, likely from the orbital bombardment.

But when he delved deeper, he could finally see for himself the signs of battle which he previously had detected from afar.

There were red-black things the deeper he went. It was the substance that filled the area and even the corpses of some individuals were filled with this substance. This substance looked like a part of a tree but more invasive.

As for the robots, they were incapacitated by this substance, being coiled and entwined. Although from what Long Wu could see, some of the robots were still functioning.

Not only that, but the deeper he went, the more he felt that the space was twisted strangely. He had to avoid that since he was sure that entering the range of those would not end well.

‘This substance…looks like part of a bigger entity. From the way the entity acted, could it be…?’ Long Wu was summarizing the entity when he thought about a certain thing that was similar.

‘It is said that the corpse of the infant Planet Behemoth has the characteristic of twisting space to some extent. Is this another Planet Behemoth?’

Long Wu became more certain of his guess. The Yul Municipality had also found the infant Planet Behemoth and used their characteristic to develop a weapon. That was natural since the Hinon Federation had also done the same thing.

With that in mind, Long Wu heightened his senses and became extremely alert.

Then the wristwatch, which was used for communication, was suddenly connected to someone.

“Can you hear me?” Long Wu’s eyes glittered as he suddenly whispered this to his wristwatch.

“…are…you…” all Long Wu could hear was static along with some words. But he could probably guess that the other side had asked his identity.

“This is Transcendent Long Wu. Here to investigate the facility which is suspected to be the source of the space-based weapon, the Federation has encountered.” Long Wu informed the other side.

As for how many words were relayed, Long Wu did not care and let them guess. Clearly, the space inside the facility was distorted which severely affected the communication.

Then he kept walking and sensing the surroundings. The more he walked further into the facility, the more he found the substance around. The center of the facility was likely to be the source of this substance.

Although, it looked like the substance mimicked the way the tree grew with roots around. At least, that was what Long Wu thought as he had to cut some on the way.

Then he arrived at the elevator which was large enough to fit in a large truck. This was used to carry large or a lot of things together. Seeing this, Long Wu knew that as well as one other thing.

When he pressed the button to make the elevator move, it was futile. The elevator would not move.

“Is it stuck by the substance?” Long Wu could conclude that the substance was around and entwined the elevator, causing it to fail its function.

“Looks like I need to go there in person.” Long Wu then cut some more of the substance. He also looked at the blade of the dagger and found that it had some residue from the substance.

After he cut enough, he slowly descended from the uppermost floor of the facility. The way down was quite long but it allowed Long Wu to gauge the size of the facility. Even his wristwatch was recording the facility in case he missed something.

When he arrived at the lowest basement, all he could see was the substance filling the entire hall. He frowned but he also saw some corpses belonged to the Federation since their symbols were there.

Long Wu walked to the supposed center of the facility by following the traces that were left. Although it felt like this whole thing was attracting Long Wu like bait, he still needed to follow things through.

Then when he walked through a corridor, he finally sensed that group of people from the Federation was isolated in a large room.

Long Wu then cut through the wall that separated them, along with the substance that covered the wall. When he finally saw the group, their expression was one of dread.

“So you are the one who came.” One of them had a stiff expression but still expressed his concern.

Wearing an exoframe, the guy rested quite well and the moment he saw Long Wu, he also knew that Long Wu was a strong transcendent. But still, the situation made him worried that Long Wu alone would not be able to solve the problem.

“What is going on here? It looks like something in the center of the facility is spreading around.” Long Wu asked.

“That is exactly what happened. Those bastards are trying to play God, but instead got played.” The guy spoke and Long Wu also knew that this was the leader of the remaining group.

Then the guy handed Long Wu some information which was recorded in the wristwatch. Long Wu then watched it.

[Year 2015, Month XX, Day XX

The substance from what we call ‘Crimson Black Iron Tree’ has the capability to sense its surroundings through its substance. It looked like a tree but it is actually a carnivorous plant so it likes meat. We at the facility have to keep giving it meat to satiate it, otherwise the ones it will eat will be us.]

[Year 2016, Month X, Day X

The substance is the most important thing to synthesize the material needed to implant memories. This discovery is the one that revolutionized the way we alter someone's memory. Not only that but if used in a certain manner, this substance can also create a curvature in space and be used as a weapon in space combat. The method is…]

Long Wu had the gist of it but he did not expect that the Memory Implant technology came from this facility as well as the space-based weapon. He sighed but his eyes were focused on the method of creating the space-based weapon before he closed the information shown on his wristwatch.

Now, it was time to discuss things with the group of survivors as to how to deal with the Crimson Black Iron Tree.